More than 30 years after its release, Sade is still finding new momentum on the charts.
According to Forbes, The Best of Sade, the group’s first and only greatest hits album, has climbed into the top 10 on the Top R&B Albums chart—marking a milestone the band had never previously reached on that list.
This week, the compilation jumped from No. 12 to No. 10, giving Sade its first-ever top-10 placement on Billboard’s R&B albums ranking. The achievement comes more than a year after the album debuted on the chart in August 2024.
While Sade’s sound has long floated between pop, soul, R&B, and jazz, The Best of Sade has typically performed strongest on jazz-focused charts. The collection continues to dominate both Jazz Albums and Contemporary Jazz Albums, where it has spent dozens of weeks at No. 1. On the latter chart, the album has led for its entire run, holding the top spot for 79 consecutive weeks.
The compilation is also moving upward elsewhere. It climbed from No. 33 to No. 30 on the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart and rose from No. 103 to No. 90 on the Billboard 200, returning to the upper half of the all-genre ranking. With one more week on the chart, the album will reach a three-year milestone on the Billboard 200.
Originally released in late 1994, The Best of Sade pulls from the band’s first four studio albums—Diamond Life, Promise, Stronger Than Pride, and Love Deluxe.
It includes signature tracks like “Smooth Operator,” “The Sweetest Taboo,” and “No Ordinary Love,” alongside deeper cuts such as “Jezebel,” “Like a Tattoo,” and “Pearls.”
The album also features “Please Send Me Someone to Love,” originally recorded for the Philadelphia soundtrack.
Certified four-times platinum by the RIAA, The Best of Sade has now sold or streamed the equivalent of four million units in the U.S. alone.